Zak Bagans' Paranormal Year In Review 2021
December 25, 2021 1:00 AM ‐ Paranormal • Television
This article is more than two years old.
The world started to return to normal in 2021, and it soon seemed to be business as usual for 'Ghost Adventures' star Zak Bagans, who had a busy and exciting 12 months.
Here at Higgypop HQ we've been following the news, gossip and paranormal encounters of Zak, which included new investigations for the GAC team, plenty of exciting side projects for Zak, and one very busy Halloween. Join us as we re-live Zak's spooktacular year.
Zak Attempted To Contact The Spirit Of Elisa Lam At The Cecil Hotel
Photo: © Discovery+
In a two-hour-long 'Ghost Adventures' special that premiered on Discovery+ in January, Zak Bagans witnessed a "compelling spirit response" that could be evidence the team were communicating with the spirit of Elisa Lam in the infamous Cecil Hotel.
There's no denying that the Cecil in downtown Los Angeles is an iconic paranormal hotspot. Zak said, "it doesn't get bigger and more sinister than this."
Zak and his team, consisting of Aaron Goodwin, Jay Wasley and Billy Tolley, are the first to be allowed into the historic hotel to investigate the hauntings related to its dark and seedy past housing countless criminals, including serial killers. It has seen multiple suicides, and the strange disappearance of Elisa Lam. The 21-year-old student from Canada was last seen at the hotel in January 2013 in CCTV footage which showed her behaving unusually in the elevator. It looked as if she was hiding from someone or something. Her body was eventually found in one of the water tanks on the roof of the hotel.
Conman Impersonating Zak Bagans Swindles $35k Out Of 'Ghost Adventures' Fan
In February, a Ghost Adventures fan from New Zealand was conned out of her lifesavings and landed criminal charges after a scammer impersonating the ghost hunter Zak contacted her.
Kim-Marie Jackson, a 46-year-old carer, started following the 'Ghost Adventures' frontman in 2018. With more than 750k followers on Instagram it was unlikely that she would get a private message from the famous paranormal investigator, but she soon did and the conversation lead to her losing $35k.
The messages were sent from an unofficial account in Zak's name. Kim-Marie told Otago Daily Times that she was skeptical at first, but the scammer did everything he could to convince her that he was the real Zak Bagans. Kim-Marie said, "he was good, he really made me believe it."
Eventually the imposter transferred sum of money out of the blue in May 2019 and instructed her to send the money on to an overseas account. By doing this she had inadvertently become part of an international fraud syndicate. The criminal gang had used her as a money mule to move the funds, something which is illegal in New Zealand, but police let her off with a warning.
Post Malone's Revealed That His Belief Ghost Grew After His Encounter With Zak's Famous Dybbuk Box
US singer, Post Malone, this year opened up to Seth Meyers about his string of bad luck following an encounter with the cursed dybbuk box at Zak's Haunted Museum in Las Vegas back in 2018. In February of this year the Grammy award winning singer appeared on 'Late Night With Seth Meyers' where he admitted that his belief in the paranormal had gotten stronger after ghost hunting with the 'Ghost Adventures' team.
He added, "it's weird because after we opened up this creepy, creepy dybbuk box, I got in a car accident, I almost had a plane wreck, my house got broken into, all that type of stuff, but it was just within a month's time. It was really really odd."
Seth asked the star if the rumours were true that he's getting a bunker built. Post joked that if he was, he'd save a place down there for his favourite ghost hunter, "Zak Bagans is definitely in here because if we need to fight off any demons or anything after the apocalypse." The star added, "I love you Zak, text me!"
Car Crashes Through The Gates Of Zak's Haunted Museum
In March, TMZ reported that a car had crashed through the gates of Zak's Haunted Museum in Las Vegas before smashing into a parked security guard's car. The dramatic incident was caught on the museum's security cameras. The footage shows a car speeding along the wrong side of the road on a rainy night before smashing through the museum's fence.
A security guard who was sat in the parked car in the grounds of the museum was taken to hospital, but only suffered minor injuries. His car was pushed into one of the museum's signs causing additional damage. As for the driver of the offending car, they sped off seemingly barely slowed by two consecutive collisions. A police report released after the incident stated that the driver lost control in the wet conditions.
Zak Collaborates With Filmmaker Eli Roth For Halloween
Zak Bagans and filmmaker Eli Roth teamed up to create a new anthology series based on the cursed items from Zak's Haunted Museum. The series premiered on Discovery+ in October with each episode telling a story that revolved around a different creepy artefact housed inside the attraction.
Zak's extensive collectibles, numbering in the thousands, are exhibited across the 30-room, 14,000-square-foot mansion near Charleston Boulevard and 6th Street in Vegas. The attraction houses thousands of items from supposedly haunted and demonically possessed objects to rare collectables with links to true crime to Hollywood pop culture and haunted history.
In November it was announced that the show had been green lit for a second season.
Zak Stepped Up To Halloween On Discovery+ & Food Network
The last place you'd expect to find Zak at Halloween was in a kitchen, but he downed his ghost hunting gadgets and offered inspiration to the Halloween-themed challenges in the latest season of Food Network's 'Halloween Wars'. Zak has experienced some of the scariest supernatural encounters ever recorded, and for the first time he shared those experiences with the eight teams of expert cake and sugar artists.
Over the course of the season, Zak took inspiration from his collection of dangerous and mysterious artefacts from his Haunted Museum to challenge the teams to create frighteningly intricate cakes that are as spooky as they are tasty.
Zak Returns To The Goldfield Hotel
It wouldn't be Halloween without a special of 'Ghost Adventures' and this year Zak and his team were lured back to the Goldfield Hotel by a lingering grudge in an all-new two-hour episode which premiered on Discovery+. Zak took his team back to Goldfield, Nevada, to settle – once and for all – a mysterious evil feud that's been cast over the town.
Tempted back by frightening new paranormal incidents, the team re-investigated the infamous Goldfield Hotel, a landmark with a bloodied past. The episode marked their final attempt to unmask a vengeful presence that only grows stronger – and more menacing – by the day.
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